Rome and Naples enabled his wife to command.

Colonel Wensleydale did not appear. Madame d'Estrées let it be
understood that her step-daughter was of a difficult temper, and now
spent most of her time in Ireland. Her own daughter, her "darling
Kitty," was being educated in Paris by the Soeurs Blanches, and she
pined for the day when the "little sweet" should join her, ready to
spread her wings in the great world. But mothers must not be impatient,
Kitty must have all the advantages that befitted her rank; and to what
better hands could the most anxious mother intrust her than to those
charming, aristocratic, accomplished nuns of the Soeurs Blanches?

Then one January day M. d'Estrées drove out to San Paolo fuori le Mura,
and caught a blast from the snowy Sabines coming back. In three days he
was dead, and his well-provided widow had snatched the bulk of his
fortune from the hands of his needy and embittered kindred.

Within six months of his death she had bought a house in St. James's
Place, and her London career had begun.

* * * * *

"It is here that we come in," said Lord Grosville, when, with more
digressions and more plainness of speech with regard to his quondam
sister-in-law than can be here reproduced, he had brought his story to
this point. "Blackwater--the old ruffian--when he was dying had a moment
of remorse. He wrote to my wife and asked her to look after his girls,
'For God's sake, Lina, see if you can help Alice--Wensleydale's a
perfect brute.' That was the first light we had on the situation, for
Adelina had long before washed her hands of him; and we knew that _she_